McGill University Thèses et mémoires publiés en 1993

The foetal toxicity of the methyl isocyanate metabolites trimethylamine (TMA) and S-(N-methylcarbamoyl)glutathione (SMG) was studied in mice. Administration of TMA but not SMG during pregnancy decreased foetal weight and selectively inhibited the postnatal growth of male offspring. Both TMA and SMG were teratogenic to mouse embryos in culture. TMA caused a dorsal-rostral split in the head and SMG produced distortion and separation of somites; both agents decreased the growth of embryos. The inhibition of embryonic growth by TMA could not be antagonized by antioxidants or growth factors. The embryotoxic effects of SMG could be antagonized by glutathione (GSH). TMA inhibited …  Read more

Ooi, Boon-Teck (Supervisor)  Read more

Durand, L. G. (Supervisor)  Read more

Malnutrition, as evidenced by low weight for height, low triceps skinfold thickness and low midarm muscle circumference, is prevalent among COPD patients. A stepped decline in nutritional status has been postulated as a mechanism for malnutrition wherein patients progressively suffer weight loss with each COPD exacerbation. A randomized clinical trial of continuous enteral nutrition could not successfully address whether or not the stepped decline in weight can be prevented. Despite this, sixteen patients admitted for a COPD exacerbation, participated in an observational prospective study wherein anthropometric, biochemical, dynamometric, respiratory, general well-being and energy consumption measures were obtained. Twelve patients had …  Read more

The evolution of advanced ceramic materials over the past two decades has not been matched by improvements in ceramic joining science and technology, particularly for high temperature applications. Of the techniques being evaluated for joining ceramics, brazing has been found to be the simplest and most promising method of fabricating both ceramic/ceramic and ceramic/metal joints. A key factor in ceramic brazing is wetting of the ceramic by the filler metal. This study deals with the application of brazing for the fabrication of $ rm Si sb3N sb4/Si sb3N sb4$ and $ rm Si sb3N sb4/Mo$ joints using Ni-Cr-Si brazing alloys …  Read more

Ground preparation design encompasses problems of ground characterization, equipment selection and performance. Ground characterization has in the past been the subject of empirical diggability classification schemes based on case studies. A new system is proposed for evaluating the ease of excavation of different ground conditions, is put forward. This has been applied successfully in different field studies. While such empirical schemes are useful to mining design, there still remains a basic lack of understanding of machine-ground interaction in the excavation process. This will be essential for long term machine and method advancement. This thesis reviews the approach and methodology adopted …  Read more

This thesis deals with the PPP, from its emergence in 1973 until 1987. The study attempts to describe the political journey of this party. It examines the position of the PPP in the political system of Indonesia's New Order as a whole. Immediately after the rise of the New Order government, a systematic program to restructure and simplify the political system was launched. It aimed, primarily, at national stability and the elimination of ideological politics. To the New Order government, an Islamic ideological orientation would only lead to conflicts among political forces and cause chaos, as experienced during the liberal …  Read more

This thesis investigates how the local Muslim elites and peasant classes of Ottoman-Palestine responded to political centralization and economic changes, from 1856-1908. After 1856, the Ottoman state renewed its authority in this area and granted greater political control to the local Muslim elites to govern the population. The economic changes at this time included Ottoman-Palestine's integration into the world-economy and the expanded markets in the local and regional area. The thesis argues that these two developments afforded the elites more opportunities to appropriate the peasants' agriculture. Moreover, while the Jewish Christian populations traded with Europe, the local Muslim elite concentrated …  Read more

Soil erosion from American cropland poses a problem to society in many ways. Ground and surface water is polluted by chemicals carried on the eroded soil, silt builds up in rivers and other water bodies, soil particles carried by wind pollute the air, and finally there is a decline in the productivity of the remaining cropland soil. The rate that soil is eroded from cropland is directly affected by the type of crops planted, tillage systems used and government agricultural programs. This thesis presents the economic costs of soil erosion from cropland and the private and social benefits that can …  Read more

This thesis deals with in situ estimates of fish target strength distribution which are important in acoustic stock assessment. The data were gathered on Newfoundland's Grand Banks in 1992 using a dual-beam sonar system. In situ measures of target strength distribution are biased unless a correction is made for nonignorable missing data because high target strength fish can be detected more readily than low target strength ones. Two methods of correcting for the bias are described and implemented. Both methods use measured off-axis angle and rely on the accuracy of these angle measurements since they compare the distributions of measured …  Read more

A historical cohort of 3014 individuals who sustained a whiplash injury resulting from a motor vehicle accident in Quebec in 1987 was assembled and followed up to six years using data obtained from the computerised databases of the province's universal automobile insurance plan. The prognostic factors that were found to be associated with the time to recovery from whiplash were gender, age, number of dependents, marital status, accident severity, vehicle type, seatbelt use, and the presence of multiple injuries. Factors that were predictive of the risk of recurrence of symptoms were age, number of dependents, and accident severity. None of …  Read more

Calcite overgrowths were precipitated from artificial seawater at 25$ sp circ$C on synthetic calcite seeds using a chemo-stat precipitation technique to investigate the influence of the $P sb{CO sb2}$ on magnesium incorporation. Powder X-ray diffraction (APXRD) analyses of the overgrowths indicate that the amount of MgCO$ sb3$ incorporated during precipitation is independent of the $P sb{CO sb2}$ over 4 orders of magnitude (10$ sp{-0.5}$ to 10$ sp{-4.6}$atm). The magnesium content of the overgrowths estimated from mass balance calculations of carbonate alkalinity of the reacting solutions ($ Delta$Ac) and flame spectrophotometric (AAS) analyses of the reacted solids yield similar results away …  Read more

Considerable progress has been made in the past decades on the life cycle of rapidly deepening winter cyclones. However, little attention has been paid to the roles of mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) in extratropical cyclogenesis that occurs within weak baroclinic environments. In this thesis, the impact of an MCS on the subsequent surface cyclogenesis is investigated, using a 36-h three-dimensional, high-resolution simulations of the famous 10-12 June squall line that occurred during PRE-STORM. The model simulates remarkably well the initiation of the squall line, numerous mesoscale surface pressure perturbations and midlevel circulation structures during the mature stage, and the subsequent …  Read more

Murty, R. (Supervisor)  Read more

A new method of incipient melting temperature (IMT) detection, continuous heating and fracture (CHF) method, has been developed in which a constant strain rate tensile or torsion deformation is applied to a specimen whose temperature is simultaneously increased. The IMT is determined in a single test and any phase transformations before the IMT will also be detected by the effects on the stress vs. strain behavior in the same experiment. This method also provides information about the effect of phase transformation and temperature on the mechanical behaviour of steel near the incipient melting temperature. By means of such tests, the …  Read more

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), a widely used clinical tumor marker, functions in vitro as an adhesion molecule and is the prototype for a family of glycoproteins, which includes nonspecific crossreacting antigen (NCA) and biliary glycoprotein (BGP). This study examines the control processes responsible for the overproduction of the CEA family in carcinomas and identifies the trans-acting factors which mediate CEA and BGP gene transcription. During differentiation and $ gamma$-interferon treatment, CEA and NCA are regulated at both transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels and transcriptional control is markedly different between these two corresponding genes. Characterization of the CEA gene promoter revealed both negative …  Read more

This thesis investigates the role of Fischerle in Elias Canetti's novel Die Blendung. Fischerle is examined from two main points of view: first he is seen as a dramatically vitalizing figure associated with a significant body of imagery and motifs in the novel; then he is viewed as a foil to Kien. Die Blendung is populated by a wide variety of grotesques. It is argued that Fischerle, who is more elaborately burdened with grotesque features than any other figure in the novel, is also the character who is most self-aware and awake to the world. Fischerle is a rogue, but …  Read more

A computer simulation model, LINKFLOW, has been developed to simulate the movement of water during various water table management practices, such as subsurface drainage, controlled drainage and subirrigation. Water movement is simulated to, or from, a buried tile drainage system through a heterogeneous and anisotropic soil to a zone of water extraction by plant roots and the atmosphere. The computer package links a newly-developed one-dimensional unsaturated ground water flow model to a three-dimensional saturated water flow model that was modified for the linkage and for simulating water flow under different water table management systems and varying climatic conditions. The movement …  Read more

In the 80's, European broadcasting changed dramatically. The rising of new technologies resulted into a growing number of TV programmes' demand while the amount of supply stays unchange. There are two European strategies: (1) A regulation policy, with the European directive "Television without frontiers"; (2) A promotion of European programmes industry, with MEDIA and EUREKA. The challenge is beyond the means implemented until now. The building of European audiovisual industry is a slow process, since cultural union and economic union are linked.  Read more

This study examined the effects of time, gender, locus of control, and perceived controllability on the differential effectiveness of selected treatment approaches to the reduction of academic procrastination. A sample of 122 male and female college students was randomly assigned to one of three groups: behavioural, cognitive-behavioural, or study skills. Treatments were administered via self-instruction modules for five consecutive weeks. Three univariate analyses, one for each of the self-report measures of procrastination, examined the main effects and interactions of the independent variables. According to the findings the effects of gender, locus of control, and perceived controllability did not result in …  Read more

This study was designed to test the claim that a deficit in low-level visual processing is a major factor in the etiology of developmental dyslexia. The transient and sustained pathways are neuro-anatomical pathways which underlie low level visual processing. Dyslexics are hypothesized to suffer from a transient pathway deficit which manifests itself in reading difficulties. Normal and disabled adult readers were compared on two visual processing tasks. One task measured the contrast threshold of subjects for flickering sinewave gratings; normal and disabled readers did not differ in contrast sensitivity. On the second task--a visual search task--disabled readers were consistently slower …  Read more

Filarete's treatise presents architecture, the new archaized mode of building, to Francesco Sforza as the means to historiate and recuperate his insurgent regime, which had overturned the preceding dynastic order of power. This thesis shows how the treatise tried to persuade a powerful but retardatory new prince not yet absorbed by the legitimizing narrative of a renascence of antiquity. It focuses on the treatise's narrative, and places it in its political situation, to show that Filarete made a dramatic, polemical opposition between building and architecture, which he will be shown to have defined as those techniques of assuring the arche.  Read more

A sea ice model developed by W. D. Hibler (1979) was applied to the Lancaster Sound/Barrow Strait channel in an effort to simulate the observed ice environment. The simulation covered a ten month period, from October 1985 until August 1986. The impact of atmospheric and oceanographic forcing on the development of characteristic ice features that develop seasonally within the channel was examined. The importance of the ice interaction component of the model when simulating a restricted channel ice environment was also examined. The model was able to simulate regional scale processes and conditions within the channel. Small scale localised processes …  Read more

The movement to protect wilderness resources can conflict with local intentions for land use and development, particularly in economically marginal areas. In rural Italy, on the island of Sardinia, the plan to create a Gennargentu National Park has incited active opposition on the part of the communities affected. In the town of Baunei, responses to environmental legislation are motivated by the desire to maintain communal control over common lands. Political action, both formal and informal, is organised by local understandings about the impact of certain laws and institutions on the town economy, principally by the restriction of residents' usi civici …  Read more

This thesis is a study of the Muslim woman saint and mystic, Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyah, as envisioned by her main biographer, Farid al-Din 'Attar. Part I is a brief review of previous works and scholarship in order to situate Rabi'ah within an historical context and to judge the consistency of earlier interpretation with the actual source material concerning Rabi'ah, 'Attar's account in particular. Part II is an exploration of 'Attar's image of Rabi'ah, based on his Tadhkirat al-awliya' and complemented by related material from his poetical works. This discussion is presented according to three themes, 'Attar's understanding of Rabi'ah as a …  Read more

This thesis examines the few-view reconstruction problem as it applies to imaging cerebral vasculature using digital subtraction angiography. A fully automated reconstruction algorithm is developed that circumvents the traditional 'correspondence problem' using only notions of consistency and connectivity. Here it is assumed that the object is a connected structure and that its centre-lines have been identified in 3 or more images. The first of three steps in the procedure involves generating a connected structure that represents the multiplicity of solutions that are consistent with any two (different) projections of the vascular tree. The second step assigns to each branch in …  Read more

This thesis examines several possible contributions and limitations of John Dewey's Progressive educational theory towards creating an effective program for improving the teaching of oral English courses in Japanese high schools. In particular, the study attempts a critical examination of Dewey's theory of Instrumentalism as a standpoint from which it continues to contribute to the retrogressive state of contemporary Japanese pedagogical orientation. In so doing, the thesis attempts to elicit, find speculative guidance in, and occasionally utilize in the clarification process, critical evaluations of Japan's university entrance examination system. The aspects of Dewey's theory which are considered as conducive to …  Read more

This thesis presents three studies on the regulation of externalities. In the first chapter we use a two-period model to analyse the reform of environmental policy when enforcement is incomplete. We show that in evaluating such reforms it is important to differentiate between two types of non-compliers which react to regulatory reform in qualitatively distinct ways. In Chapter 2 we show the problems caused by using the 'ALARA' criterion when the supply of new technologies of environmental protection is endogenous. The difference between the ALARA rule and the socially optimal rule is characterised and it is shown that the difference …  Read more

In consideration of the chronic poverty of farmers in Rwanda as well as in other developing countries where self-sufficient agriculture is practiced, this study examines what the well studied theory of specialization and trade, if implemented, could bring to Rwandan farmers in terms of production and profits. To attain this objective, a spatial optimization model with linear programming was built and used to maximize the potential production and net returns which were compared to those from the traditional system. The model was built in a way that it also shows the pattern of trade and quantities traded. The results show …  Read more

Various problems which occur during the translation of a literary text are often linked to the linguistic and extra-linguistic particularities of the original text. This thesis, which focuses on A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving and its French translation, Une priere pour Owen by Michel Lebrun, deals with several of these problems. The analysis is based on two axes of reflection. The first, theoretical, is discussed in chapter one and bears on three fundamental elements of the act of translation: the notion of the ethics of translation (which concerns, among other things, the question of accuracy, or "faithfulness"); …  Read more

One-dimensional formal groups were classified by W. Hill who showed in particular that one-dimensional formal groups are isomorphic over p-adic integers if and only if they have the same associated Eisenstein polynomial. This result can be applied to show that the torsion points on any supersingular elliptic curve over the field of p-adic numbers generate abelian extensions of the unramified quadradic extension of the field. The theorem cannot be extended to classify formal groups of higher dimension. Counterexamples will be provided both in the case of two-dimensional formal groups and when the formal group is defined over an extension of …  Read more

Modelling a listener's perception of musical rhythm requires both an understanding of rhythm as a whole as well as a definition of its constituent elements. The hypothesis is that once we can adequately define rhythm, we can then begin to design and implement models to gain insight into the perceptual processes which occur when listening to rhythmic sequences. This research outlines studies which have attempted to define and outline both the structure and the perception of rhythm. Based on the conclusions of these investigations, a computer model is designed and implemented using connectionist techniques. The emphases on this model are …  Read more

Cellular differentiation is accompanied by the modulation of gene expression. I have compared the expression of various genes, using the slot-blot technique, in two different systems. First, the level of expression of a wide variety of genes was analyzed in the hypertrophied heart of transgenic mice expressing the polyomavirus large T-antigen gene, and compared to normal control heart. I have shown that most changes in gene expression occurred mainly during early stages of heart hypertrophy. These genes code for proteins known to play a role in signal transduction, and transcriptional and growth control. The latter stages of cardiac hypertrophy are …  Read more

A numerical model study of the seasonal cycle of sea-ice cover and ocean circulation in the Arctic Ocean is presented. The investigation is carried out in four parts using the coupled sea ice-ocean model of Oberhuber (1993a). The Oberhuber model is the first global ocean general circulation model to use Lagrangian isopycnal coordinates. First, a sensitivity study is given of the sea-ice model, which is both dynamic and thermodynamic. The robustness of the sea-ice component in an uncoupled mode is demonstrated. Secondly, the addition of a snow model to the coupled sea ice-ocean model of Oberhuber (1993a) is described. The …  Read more

To assess the contribution to paradoxical sleep of medullary regions capable of supporting its cortical activation and muscle atonia, the distribution and descending projections of GABAergic and serotonergic cells were investigated with retrograde transport and immunohistochemical double labelling in rats. In cats, the effects of neurotoxic lesions on the normal distribution of reticular cholinergic, GABAergic and serotonergic cells and fibres as well as on the sleep-wake cycle were observed. In the rat, GABAergic and serotonergic neurons were identified in the medulla and raphe, where they appeared to be heavily innervated by GABAergic terminals, and subpopulations of both cell types were …  Read more

During the 1940's, the probability of an earthquake occurring with seismic moment, $M sp prime$, was found to follow: Pr($M sp prime > M) sim M sp{-q sb{D}}$ where $q sb{D}$ is the Gutenberg-Richter exponent. Such distributions are connected with spatial scaling; they are now known to be generic features of multifractals, specifically connected with first order multifractal phase transitions. This behaviour has also been taken as the basic feature of self-organized criticality. Seismographs measure seismic wave magnitudes, seismic moments are then estimated by semi-empirical power law relations. We first show that the horizontal structure of earthquake seismic moment is …  Read more

The implementation of a knowledge-based expert system to check on inpatients' conditions is described. In our development of a bedside computerized ICU, graphical user interface (GUI) and graphical visualization have been extensively exploited to facilitate the natural and effective representation of clinical information for patient care, the transition from the manual system to computerized system and users interaction with the system. The input comprises the heart rates, the blood pressures, and the central venous pressures of several inpatients. The algorithm is made up of two parts. The first one, written in C acquires and classifies the data. The second part …  Read more

The present study is a microanalytic analysis of the communicative interaction between Inuit caregivers and their children at 16 and 20 months of age. The caregivers in the study included an older more traditional mother, a younger less traditional mother, and a teenage sibling caregiver. Videotaped samples of naturalistic interaction between the Inuit caregivers and children were coded for communicative intent using the Inventory of Communicative Acts-Abridged (Ninio, Wheeler, Snow, Pan, & Rollins, 1991). Preliminary comparisons between the Inuit data and the results of studies of white middle-class caregiver-child interaction were also assessed. Results of the study demonstrate that there …  Read more

This thesis makes an analysis of the major inflationary mechanisms that origins from factors inherent to Russia's new economic environment since the beginning of the reform program in January 1992. After some theoretical clarifications over the two different views of the inflationary dynamics, (i.e. the monetary and the fiscal view), an accurate picture of the inflationary structures of the industrial and the financial sector will be made. Then the various factors (other than the January's price liberalization) responsible for the persistence of the high level of inflation in the country will be systematically studied (i.e. firms' soft budget constraint, indexation …  Read more

The studies which are presented here are computer simulations of fluid phenomena based on 2D lattice gas models of the kind first described by Frisch et al. (1986). The primary advantage of using these models is that they are easily implemented on massively parallel computers and as a result are extremely fast. The first of these studies is of a model of phase separation in binary fluids. The growth laws of the fluid domains are examined and are shown to compare favourably to theoretical predictions of San Miguel et al. (1985). This appears to be a first verification of these …  Read more

This thesis is in two chapters. Chapter one is about intentions. Literary theorists have, by and large, dismissed their relevance to interpretation, so it will be useful to consider what exactly is being ignored. Therefore, I devote chapter one to a clarification of the nature and role(s) of intention within the interlocking network of basic propositional attitudes. I argue that intentions incorporate both a functional and a representational dimension, triggering actional mechanisms and structuring the process of practical reasoning. Chapter two is about interpretation. I open the chapter with an examination of extreme conventionalist theses, arguing that their success depends …  Read more

Two rabbit and three guinea pig corticostatic (anti-adrenocorticotrophic) peptides were isolated from bone marrow cells and identified. The third guinea pig peptide proved to be a novel 13-member anti-parallel dimer. Removal of the two C-terminal arginines from rabbit corticostatin 1 lowered the biologic activity but removal of the two N-terminal arginines from the guinea pig peptides was without effect. Immunocytochemical localization of rabbit corticostatin 1 in the rabbit indicated that it was localized in immune tissues such as spleen and bone marrow but also in non-immune tissues such as lung, placenta, adrenal, anterior pituitary and various parts of the brain, …  Read more

This thesis deals with the problems of conflict of labour laws in international air transport, in the context of U.S. judicial practice in relation to the constitutional law-based labour statutes, employment accident statutes and labour management relation laws. The first chapter provides an overview of the methodology adopted in conflict of labour laws under the U.S. jurisprudence, mainly focusing on the balancing-of-interests technique crystallised through precedents. The compatibility problem involved in dealing with conflicts within international airline industry is also briefly discussed. A detailed review of different categories of labour statutes in later chapters reveals specific conflict of laws problems …  Read more

Savage, S. B. (Supervisor)  Read more

Since the turn of the century, there has been a general awareness that children raised by parents with psychiatric disorders remain at risk for psychopathology themselves. This research investigates the mother-child responsivity and coping behavior of high risk children. Two groups of mother-infant dyads (N = 60) (mothers with and without psychiatric disorders) were coded during a videotaped, semi-structured play interaction using the CARE-Index. Results indicated that mothers with psychiatric disorders were significantly less sensitive and more unresponsive with their children than normal mothers. Mothers with psychiatric disorders who had extreme levels of psychosocial stress were significantly less sensitive and …  Read more

The thesis offers an examination of the use of the Bible in Viens vers le Pere, a Catholic catechetical series published between 1964 and 1969 for use in the primary schools of Quebec. It enjoyed great popularity from the 1960s to the 1980s and was translated into several languages and used in some fourteen countries. The series places particular emphasis on the use of the Bible in catechesis. The thesis investigates the method of biblical interpretation underpinning these catechetical resources and constitutes the first indepth study of the series. Developments in educational psychology and Catholic theology from the first half …  Read more

Mais supposez maintenant que Ia technologie ne soit pas en moyen,comment ~a se comparerait avec Ie desir de la connaitre au fond? Martin Heidegger  Read more

A decision feedback (DFB) equalizer is used to correct for the effects of inter-symbol interference in digital communications systems. The order of the DFB filter is reduced to a bare minimum and studied when it is insufficient to equalize the channel, i.e., when the filter does not have enough poles to cancel all the zeroes of the channel. The error surfaces produced by the DFB filter in the symbol-by-symbol, frame-by-frame, and aggregate sense are investigated. A genetic algorithm is then applied to the problem of adapting the DFB filter coefficients. The performance of the genetic algorithm is compared to that …  Read more

Maximal inotropic response of electrically driven (0.5, 1 or 2 Hz) rat ventricular tissues in vitro to $ alpha sb1$-adrenoceptor agonist, methoxamine, was comparable to that of $ beta sb1$-adrenoceptor agonist isoprenaline up to 2 weeks of age. The inotropic effect of methoxamine decreased to adult levels at 3 weeks so that in tissues from rats 3 weeks and older, its inotropic effect was significantly less than that of isoprenaline. The inotropic effect of isoprenaline was not age-dependent. The inotropic effect of methoxamine was antagonized by prazosin and that of isoprenaline by propranolol. Treatment of pups at birth with dexamethasone, …  Read more